My last book, X: The Experience When Business Meets Design, explored the art and science of experience design. Looking beyond the disparate, but important disciplines of customer experience, brand experience, user experience, service experience, I sought to spark a creative coalescence between them…hence, “X.” It’s the letter, and more importantly, the experience, they share. Why leave experiences to chance? Why should experiences be disconnected and impersonal? Yet, for the most part, even in an era of digital transformation and machine…
Once upon a time, there was a meaningful conversation about the art of storytelling and audience engagement
Storytelling is as magical as it is ancient. While many of us appreciate the power of story, we all could benefit from learning the art and science of storytelling and how it can help every facet of or professional and personal lives. Anyone who knows me, is well aware of my love for Disney. I’ve spent years studying the work of Walt, Imagineering, Pixar, et al. During the development of X: The Experience When Business Meets Design, I partnered with…
How true storytelling can save marketing (and more…)
I recently had the privilege to work on a very special project with my friends at GapingVoid and LinkedIn. We set out on a creative endeavor to explore the intersection of story, art, humor and candor as a means of fostering self-reflection and inspiring personal and professional change. The result is a something I’m very proud of…a new short and sweet but compelling ebook, Once Upon a Digital Time: How to be an amazing storyteller when everyone is a “storyteller.”…
Customer Experience, Where It is Now, and Where It Will Go Next
Leo Bertelli was gracious enough to invite me for an interview on the state and future of CX. The conversation was so engrossing that I wanted to share it with you here. I hope it helps you! What do you think have been the most significant advances in CX in previous years? You can’t talk about customer experience if you don’t appreciate what the word experience means – and as the author of a book on experience design, I struggled…
Experience Innovation – Designing for the X Factor in Customer Experience
Coming up in Silicon Valley during the 90s and early 2000s was special for a geek like me. I moved to Northern California from LA in 1996. Tech and startups were at the time fledgling in Los Angeles but still exciting. I would later return to help catalyze the startup ecosystem. My goal at the time was to plug into the startup garage capital of the world. By then, there were already storied landmarks that one would have to visit….
Customer Experience For The Win #FTW
I had the opportunity to keynote UNITE by Satmetrix recently on the topic of experience design for modern customers. Leading up to the event, I joined the team on a podcast to discuss the topic in-depth. I share it with you here in the hopes that it will help you. Capture the heart, mind and spirt of the new CX…the customer’s experience Ask 10 different executives what CX means and how to improve it, you’ll get at least 15 different…
For Decades, Technology Scaled Businesses Away from People; It’s Time To Bring Customers Closer
For decades, businesses used technology to distance themselves from customers. Systems and processes helped companes automate, grow and scale transactions and service. Moving forward, we have to explore technology and service innovation to deliver against the experiences customers value versus building updated solutions on top of existing paradigms. Innovation is all the work you do to conform to expectations and aspirations of people as they evolve instead of making them conform to your legacy perspectives, assumptions, processes and metrics of…
The Future of Brand is Experienced and Shared
That one time I was in Genève… What a wonderful way to start any sentence. Shortly after X: The Experience When Business Meets Design launched, I was invited by my good friend Arnaud Grobet to visit Genève. The trip was meant to serve as a mini book tour, with two speaking engagements at LIFT (one of my favorite events), media interviews and also a vist to CREA University to speak to students. Any time I have a chance to speak with…
Here’s to the past, but now it’s time to learn and unlearn toward the future
How we measure future success is based on yesterday’s understanding of what success meant. It was a different time. The experiences that many deliver today are based on standards of the past and what was acceptable to a preceding generation of customers. People have changed and continue to do so. We simply can’t imagine new possibilities if we can’t see, feel, hear, sense, people as they advance. Otherwise, our ideas, no matter how creative, brilliant, bold, will always be rooted…
Brands of the Future: The Critical Relationship Between BX, CX, UX and EX
Businesses are doubling down on customer experience and rightfully so. The customer has never been more connected, informed and empowered. Any brand hoping to survive and thrive in an era of digital Darwinism has no choice but to #adaptordie. But customer experience in of itself is not enough. Brands must understand what it means to compete at a time when people are not only changing, their priorities around values, aspirations and loyalty are also shifting. Humanity is now the killer…
